Wire cutting and stripping tool



Nov. 20, 1956 BOLOGNO 2,

WIRE CUTTING AND STRIPPING TOOL Filed Nov. 2, 1953 INVENTOR. LOU l S BOLOG NO tion.

United States Patent O WIRE CUTTING AND STRIPPING TOOL I Louis Bologno, Bronx, N..Y. Application November 2, 1953, Serial No. 389,518

4 Claims. (Cl. 819.5)

Electricians, maintenance men, assemblers and repairers of electrical instruments and equipment and other workers have frequent need to drive screws, strip insulation from wires and icut Wires as consecutive or related operations; Often such work must be done in relatively inaccessible places. My' invention supplies a single tool in place ofthe three-a screw driver, wire stripper and a pair of plierswhich now must be employed for such work. A chief objecttherefore of this invention is to provide a single tool which will-enable a worker to carry out any one and all of these three closely related operations. Another object is to provide such a tool which is inexpensive and simple to'manufacture and of relatively few parts and easy to use and trouble free.

An important object is to provide a tool wherein the parts which accomplish these three results are closely inter-related both from the standpoint of design and use so-tha-t each cooperates with the others to carry out any and all of the three operations. A related object is to construct such a combination tool with aminimum number of characteristic parts each one of which performs a plurality of results and each of which cooperateswith the others inthe performance of each result.

'An object hereof is to provide a combination tool with which a user can instantly proceed from any one opera tionto any other without changing his grip, upon the tool and with no intermediate manipulation which takes more than an instant. It has been proposedifor example that a: wire stripper be built within the handle of a screw driver. In such a construction it is thus necessary-that auser: reverse his hold upon the handle and grasp the tool partly by the handle and partly by the shaft'and then draw a wire through a stripperin the handle, using his thumb to hold thewire in stripping position and making the handle less easy to grasp for its normal operation as ascrew driver. Among the objects of this invention is to applying stripping force by the tool itself, to furnish'a handle having no palm-irritating openings, to dispose wire stripping and cutting and screw driving instrumentalities well out of the way of each other and so that their successive use requires no'change of. position.

An important object is to furnish a combinationtool whichfirst cuts insulation about a wire and then by movementof the wire against a stationary stripping edge strips the insulation, both operations being quickly performed without breaking or displacing, any strand of a braided wire;

To carry out the above objects and others I. provide a simple tool having one or a first or preparation position Whereina' wire to be stripped or cut is introduced into work position, another or second position wherein the insulation canbe stripped, movement of the tool between first and second position cutting the insulation but not the 'wire, another or third position whereat th wire has been cut (as parts of the tool travel between second and third positions) and a fourth or final position wherein a screw driving portion of the tool is rigidly connected to the handle, movement between all of said positions being quick and easy while a tool is grasped in only one posi- Among the objects of this invention therefore is the provision of a simple, inexpensive and practicable triple purpose tool, which exemplifies the objects: above stated. Certain. other objects will have been madeclear by the above summary and will become more evident as the specification proceeds and from a consideration of the drawings and the sub-joined claims. Although I am showing only certain preferred-forms of my invention it will readily be understood that changes may be made without departingfrom the spirit of my invention or the scope of my broader claims.

In the drawings:

Figure I is a side elevational view of my tool, with.-the parts in a rigid screw driving position, herein called fourth;

Figure 2 is a fragmentary View, partly broken away and'partl-y in section, generally corresponding to Figure l but showing my tool in a preparatory or first position, wherein a wire to-bestripped or cut is introduced into work position;

Figure 3- is a view' generally corresponding to Figures 2 and 4 but showing my tool in a wire stripping or second position, with the parts disposed intermediate the positions shown in Figures 2 and 4 and the insulation but not the wire cut ready for stripping;

Figure 4 is a fragmentary view partly in elevation and partly in section corresponding to Figure l and showing the interior of' mytool when in a third position after a wire has been'cut; I

Figure 5 is a partial exploded view showing certain of thecharacteristic parts of my combination tool.

In thefollowingdescription and the sub-joined claims the orientation is ,of a screw driver held in the position of Figure lwith abladeconsidered as at the bottom or lower portion-ofia tool and'a handl at the top or upper portion; Other parts are similarly'considered. This is a usual working position. The words inner and outer" and these similar thereto are to be' taken as from the stand point of a central vertical axis; I use the term pin to mean. a small elongated fastening cylinder, whether headed or unheaded. Like words are used with like meanings;

Mycom'bination tool has a conventional handl 11 and ferrule 'liawith a shaft15'set into thishandle; The lower enduofthis shaft is'expanded or enlarged into an inner operating cylinder or operating member 17' with an outer wall 18 in the lower edge of which'is formed a cutter 19 in the form of an inverted Vhaving cutting and stripping legs 2i). I have found that the end of this tool wherethe legs of the 'V- join in order to serve most efficiently as a wire strippermust be angular rather than having a radius. That.is, a V-shape operates better than a U-shape. An element. with a U-shape tends to pile up the insulation in a stripping operation although either operates satisfactorily for cutting. As will be evident to those skilled in this artthis construction'is such that this cutting edge readily can: be honed tokeep it sharp. I describe the operatingcylinder as formed as an enlargement of shaft 15, as is desirable, but it may be made as a separate member rigidly attached thereto.

A hollow-outer or work cylinder or member 21 with an inner wall 22 has oppo sitely disposed and hence aligned openings 23 and 25' in the respective sides thereof: l prefertomakeone opening, say 25, larger than the other to indicate the one through which a wire is introduced to be-stri-pped. Alternatively, an indicating mark may be employed. A lower edge 26 of this opening 25 acts as a shear plate which cooperates with thercutter 19 to sever awire.' The "edges of the legs 20 of the V also and the remainder of the periphery of the opening 25 relatively adjacentthebottom assist the lower portion as stripping instrumentalities, as later described.

This work cylinder is mounted upon the operating cylinder preferably as by a pin 27, shown as a set screw, which operates in a slot in the form of an inverted T generally indicated as 29 inthe outer cylinder. Walls 18 and 22 of the cylinders closely engage. In this portion of this description only enough of the operation of my device will be described to indicate the relation of the parts. Later I shall more fully explain the operation. A wire from which a Worker wishes to strip the insulation or which he wishes to cut is introduced between openings 23 and 25 when my tool is in a first or preparatory position of Figure 2, blade 37, later described, having been placed against a solid object to serve as a base. If a wire is to be stripped of its insulation, a worker introduces it through opening 25 and pushes it across the interior of cylinder 21 and through opening 23 until the end protrudes. He then pushes handle 11 downwardly. At this point in the operation after the stripping operation has been completed upon a wire of medium thickness the parts will be disposed in the stripping or second position of Figure 3, the exact location depending upon the thickness of the wire. It will be noted'that opening 23 and opening 25 also act as fixtures to hold a wire in place during a stripping or cutting operation as well as opening 25 serving as a Wire stripping or insulation removing instrumentality.

I have described the cutter 19 as formed upon an outside surface 18 of the inner or operating cylinder and the shear plate as upon an inside surface of the outer vertical wall 22 of the work cylinder, as is desirable for ease of sharpening the cutter and other practical reasons, but these instrumentalities can be reversed and in fact the operating cylinder 17 may be hollow and exterior and the work cylinder 21 solid and interior.

When a user wishes to cut a wire he places the wire in place with the parts in the preparatory or first position of Figure 2 and bears down on the handle, the screw driver blade 37 serving as a base, and quickly passes the cutter through the position of Figure 3 to that of Figure 4.

The mount, which, as previously stated, comprises a pin 27 and a slot 29, is preferably in the form of an inverted T with the cross bar 31 of the T at the bottom and the leg 33 extending vertically upwardly therefrom. I prefer to attach the outer cylinder 21 to the work cylinder 17 by means of a removable headed pin or screw so that a user may readily detach the outer cylinder from the remainder of the tool in order easily to clean out the shreads of insulation and the like accumulated therewithin and also to re-sharpen the cutting edges of the V 19. Alternatively and less advantageously I have built my tool with a fixed or driven pin in place of a set screw.

Within a hollow interior cavity 34 of the outer cylinder 21 a spring 35 is disposed. Its upper end engages the lower ends of the V-shaped slot and the lower end of the spring rests upon a lower transverse or horizontal wall 36 of the hollow outer cylinder 21 and when free (with the pin in the leg of the T-slot). normally moves the outer cylinder to the position shown in Figure 2.

The lower portion of this outer or work cylinder is formed into a screw driving blade 37, which also serves as a support for the whole tool in a wire severing or wire stripping operation and as a fixture when the tool is adjusted.

It will be understood that the slot 29 and pin 27 serve as cooperating guiding and mounting formations by which said cylinders are jointly operated. When said handle is rotated thus rotating operating cylinder 17 and pin 27 the pin bears against the vertical edges of leg-slot 33 or, ,generally, against the ends of cross-slot 31 thus rotating work cylinder 21 and the screw driver blade 37. When the pin is within the leg-slot the pin and leg of the T guide the cylinder between the positions shown in Figures 2 and 3 and between said third mentioned position wherein the pin is at the bottom of the leg before the parts have beanltrotated to the fourth or rigid position of Figures 1 an operation of my tool, in the light of the above description, is in terms of the four positions through which it is moved so that its various functions can be carried out.

If a wire is to be handled, the parts are placed in a first or preparatory position of Figure 2, with the pin 27 in the vertical leg 33 of the slot adjacent its upper end and held there by spring 35, which is fully expanded. A user then passes the, wire between openings and 23 so that it is stretched across the hollow interior portion 34 of work cylinder 21 with a section between cutter 19 and shear plate 26. Whether the wire is to be stripped of insulation or cut the driver 37 acts as a base.

If the insulation is to be stripped, the wire preferably is pushed in through opening 25 and out on the other side of the cylinder, the openings serving as fixtures or holders for the wire. As the user forces the handle downwardly from the first position of Figure 2 toward a wirestripping or second position of Figure 3 the sides of the legs of the V cutter first cut the insulation. At the same time as he moves the handle downwardly the worker preferably pulls the wire away from the vertical axis of the tool in a direction opposite to that in which he has introduced it. The severed insulation remains in the opening away from which it has been pulled and the bare wire emerges. No strands are cut provided a reasonable amount of care has been used in determining the extent of downward movement in relation to the diameter of the wire. In actual practice the same tools have been used without difliculty successively with wires of greatly varying diameters. Since the diameter of wires from which insulation is severed varies greatly, this wire stripping position of Figure 3 is not so definitely placed as are the others.

When a user wishes to cut a wire he stretches it between the openings which hold it in place, the parts being in the first or preparatory position of Figure 2 with pin 27 in the leg of the T and with the point at which the wire is to be severed between the cutter and shear plate. He then sharply depresses handle 11. This operation moves the parts to a third position of Figure 4. Upon such downward movement of Operating cylinder 17 upon depres sion of handle 11 the spring is compressed to this position. The wire is cut as the cutter passes between positions two and three.

Usually before a screw is to be driven the parts are disposed in the third position, with the pin at the bottom of the vertical slot and in line with the transverse slot, and the handle is rotated in a usual manner, to the right or left. Thereupon the cylinder 21 rotates relatively to the cylinder 17 and the pin is disposed at one end or the other of the cross slot, depending upon the direction of rotation, in a fourth position (right or left) such as 7 shown in Figure l with the handle and the driver rigidly connected and the spring compressed.

It should be noted that with the pin in any position rotation of handle 11 will rotate driver 37, the pin and the edges of the vertical slot thus serving as motion-transmitting elements, in addition to their primary function of guides. The reason for moving the parts into the (fourth) positions of Figure 1 with the pin first at the bottom of the vertical slot and then moved into one end or the other of the cross slot is so that the entire tool is rigid.

Attention is directed to the fact that the bottom of the periphery of opening 25 acts as a shear blade and that such surface and those thereabove cooperate with the surfaces of the sides of the V to strip insulation. This stripping and shearing surface of the edge of the opening is most efficient when it has a substantial radius, shown as that of a circle.

Assume that a user wishes to go from the above described rigid driving or fourth position to a wire cutting or wire stripping position. He rotates blade 37 upon its longitt dinal axis until the pin 27 is in line with vertical slot 33.

In practice a user generally places the blade in a crack between fixed boards or in a well-set screw or in fact in any other firm crevice and turns it slightly. As a matter of fact it may readily be turned by hand but I have noticed that in actual practice a worker finds the above procedure faster and easier. When the set screw and leg of the inverted T are thus aligned spring 35 forces the cylinders apart from the position shown in Figure 4 to that shown in Figure 2, both openings 23 and 25 then being made free, and the procedures noted above may be carried out.

It should be particularly noted that the blade or driver 37 performs a useful function in connection with each one of the three operations which can be carried out by this tool. In the first place of course it serves as a conventional screw driver. Second, it is employed to steady the tool when it is used as a wire stripper. Third, it is necessary for quick and easy operation as a base for the wire cutting operation when the handle and hence the cutting V 19 is forced downwardly to sever a wire. Finally it assists in the adjustment of the tool when the pin is to be moved to or from a position at the bottom of slot 33. It will also be noted that the inner or operating cylinder 17 and the outer or work cylinder 21 cooperate in the accomplishment of each and all of the operations hereof, as do the handle 11 and the shaft 15.

While I have described my invention as a combination tool which accomplishes three results, I am not so limited. It can well be employed as a wire cutter and an insulationstripping device or as either thereof, or as either in combination with a screw driver. It will be understood that the provision of such a tool or tools is within the objects of this invention.

The advantages of my invention will have been made clear by the above portion of this specification and consideration of the drawings and of the sub-joined claims. These advantages include the provision of a combination tool, simple and inexpensive to manufacture and easy to use, by which a worker can drive a screw, strip insulation from a wire or cut a wire, each of the several parts of the apparatus cooperating with all of the others thereof in the carrying out of each of these functions and in the making of the necessary adjustments.

I claim:

1. A cutting tool comprising a handle and a shaft downwardly extending therefrom, a first tubular cylinder rigid with said shaft, a second tubular cylinder telescopically disposed with respect to said first cylinder and supported thereby, coupling means between said cylinders providing limited relative vertical movement therebetween and simultaneous rotational movement, a pair of opposed apertures in one of said cylinders forming guide means for a wire passed therethrough, cutting means depending from' the other said cylinder in juxtaposition to one of said apertures, the limited relative vertical movement of said cylinders providing corresponding limited relative movement between the cutting means and the juxtaposed aperture from an open aperture position to a closed aperture position, said handle providing vertical control over said limited relative vertical movement, and a substantially flat member in downward dependence from one said cylinder adapted to be placed in a stationary slot to prevent rotation of said tool and to provide support therefor.-

2. A tool useful in stripping insulation from a wire comprising a handle and a shaft downwardly extending therefrom, a first tubular cylinder rigid with said shaft, a second tubular cylinder telescopically disposed with respect to said first cylinder and supported thereby, coupling means between said cylinders providing limited relative vertical movement therebetween and simultaneous rotational movement, a pair of opposed apertures in the outer said cylinder forming guide and support means for a wire passed therethrough, a cutting means in the form of at least two intersecting sharpened edges depending from the inner said cylinder in juxtaposition to one of said apertures, the limited relative vertical movement of said cylinders providing corresponding limited relative movement between the cutting means and the juxtaposed aperture from an open aperture position to a closed aperture position, said handle providing vertical control over said limited relative vertical movement and permitting adjustment of the cutting means with respect to the juxtaposed aperture to accommodate and engage wires of different sizes, and a substantially flat member in downward dependence from one said cylinder adapted to be placed in a stationary slot to prevent rotation of said tool and to provide support therefor during the insulating stripping operation.

3. A cutting tool comprising a handle and a shaft downwardly extending therefrom, a first tubular cylinder rigid with said shaft, a second tubular cylinder telescopically disposed around said first cylinder and supported thereby, coupling means between said cylinders providing limited relative vertical movement therebetween and simultaneous rotational movement, a pair of opposed apertures in the walls of the outer cylinder forming guide means for a wire passed therethrough, cutting means in the form of two intersecting sharpened edges in the form of an inverted V depending downwardly from said inner tubular cylinder in juxtaposition to one of said apertures, the limited relative vertical movement of said cylinders providing corresponding limited relative movement between the cutting means and juxtaposed aperture from an open aperture position to a closed aperture position, said handle providing vertical control over said limited relative vertical movement and permitting the application of a cutting impact force upon a wire extending through the said apertures, and a support member downwardly depending from said outer cylinder, terminating in a substantially flat member adapted to be placed in a stationary slot to provide supportfor said tool during the cutting operation.

4. A combined tool comprising a handle providing a frictional grip and a rod-like shaft downwardly extending therefrom, a first tubular cylinder rigid with and coaxial with said shaft, a second tubular cylinder telescopically disposed around said first cylinder and supported thereby, coupling means between the first inner tubular cylinder and the second outer tubular cylinder providing limited relative vertical movement therebetween and simultaneous rotational movement, a pair of opposed apertures in the sidewalls of said outer cylinder concentrically disposed on a single axis at right angles to the axis of said cylinder, said apertures comprising a relatively large input aperture and a relatively smaller discharge aperture providing guide means and support for a wire passed therethrough, a cutting edge in the form of an inverted V disposed in the lower edge of said inner cylinder being so disposed within said outer cylinder that the cutting edge is in juxtaposition with the large input aperture; the limited relative vertical movement of said cylinders providing corresponding limited relative movementbetween said cutting means and input aperture from an open aperture position we completely closed aperture position, said handle providing vertical control over said limited relative vertical movement, and a wedgeshaped member downwardly depending from said outer cylinder and adapted to be positioned in a stationary slot to provide rotational stability and support for said tool.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 340,212 Heath et a1. Apr. 20, 1886 370,735 Ganon Sept. 27, 1887 873,365 Gast Dec. 10, 1907 FOREIGN PATENTS 69,402 Switzerland June 16, 1915 119,711 Austria Nov. 10, 1930 

